“You have noticed, perhaps, whom he favours with his attentions? You notice where he is now, and how engaged?”

“Yes. But Mr. Lammle⁠—”

She darts a look at him which he cannot comprehend, and shows him another portrait.

“Very good; is it not?”

“Charming!” says Twemlow.

“So like as to be almost a caricature?⁠— Mr. Twemlow, it is impossible to tell you what the struggle in my mind has been, before I could bring myself to speak to you as I do now. It is only in the conviction that I may trust you never to betray me, that I can proceed. Sincerely promise me that you never will betray my confidence⁠—that you will respect it, even though you may no longer respect me⁠—and I shall be as satisfied as if you had sworn it.”